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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Holy Spirit, go clean your room!

I had an interesting discussion in lit class yesterday that i thought might be a good thing to throw on here. I'm not exactly sure how the discussion started, but I'm pretty sure it was pretty shallow. Seems like often deep conversations are bred by shallow ones Lol.In any case, the question was asked 'does God have responsibilities?' I'm pretty sure that's one of those questions I'll only know the answer to when I'm dead, in heaven, and chillen with God. In any case, our lit class began to explore the topic. Does God have responsibilities?The word 'responsibility' often makes me think of cleaning the bathroom, doing my homework, or in general doing something I'd rather pass up on. Maybe that has to do with my upbringing Lol. Naturally, to me, thethought of God having responsibilities made me think of him vacuuming the living room of heaven. Or worse, having to watch earth. I really think it would suck to be God. Maybe that's because I'm human, and maybe that's why I'm human. In all honesty, I think it would suck to run a daycare, much less the entire earth. Then again maybe that's why God gave us free will, Lol. That way he can love us, but not have to control us.

Anyways, back to responsibility. My buddy Austin Townend brought up a good point in class. If God had responsibilities, it would mean there was someone, or something, greater than Him. I only have a responsibility when I submit to a principle, idea, or authority bigger than me. I choose to submit myself to that, so I feel responsible for it. God cannot be that way because He is God. He is the maker of the rules, and is outside of them. The only way God can be responsible is if He chooses to by making a promise/covenant. God always comes through on his promises because He holds Himself responsible for them. Pretty mind boggling stuff if you ask me.

While I'm in boggling-of-the-mind mode I'll throw something else out there.Putting God in a box. I don't think there is any way to not put God in a box. Yeah, you can call me the antichrist and spam me with '666' comments, but only after you hear me out on this one.When someone says "God can't be put in a box" what have they just done? They've put Him in a box! They just put God in the box of "no boxes!" So where does that leave us?Well, I want to use an example to demonstrate my point.

Take infinity. If I were to explain the abstract concept of infinity to you, how would I do it? I could just say infinity goes on forever, but that concept is still difficult to fully grasp for a human mind based on the finite. What if I were to give you the example of numbers? Infinity is like counting. You give me any number, and I can tell you one above it (yeah, for the math geeks we could go into countably infinite and incountably infinite: but bear with me). This "number line" example would help a person grasp infinity. It doesn't explain infinity in it's entirety, but it gets the idea across. Basically, I put infinity in a box.With God it's a little different, but I think the basic concept is the same. How could there be any possible way for us, as humans (finite, corruptible, and inherently sinful) to grasp the omnipresent and omnipotent deity, who is God, in his entirety? All through the Bible metaphors are used of God to describe him ("The Lord is my shepherd" from Psalm 23 for instance.) How is it different when we put God in a box?I don't think it is, so long as we are not nailing our cute little "box Jesus" to the floor and telling Him to stay there. What I mean is that as long as I put God in a box simply to better understand Him, and not to define Him, it's fine. It may even be necessary. The second I say I can define who God is in his entirety is when I get in trouble. I will never fully understand God, and I'm cool with that. I think that's the way it's supposed to be :)

Realize that I am no Bible scholar, and some of my theology may be off. If you think so, please feel free to comment and let me in on my error.